House of the Week: Modern in Latham/Clifton Park

This week’s house is not quite a reality, but a set of plans from builder Anthony Vaccarielli. The owner of Schuyler Builders, Vaccarielli builds traditional houses, but he’s looking for a buyer who wants one of his “Metro-Modern” designs. He’s advertising two lots in Albany County, one at 4222 River Drive, Colonie and another at 118 Old Niskayuna Road, Latham. He also owns land off 324 Moe Road in Clifton Park that has been subdivided into four lots awaiting buyers.

Vaccarielli’s design concepts include a spa bathroom off the master bedroom with a two-person jet tub; a kitchen finished with cherry wood and granite; a central vacuuming system; tray ceilings; foam insulation; and passive solar heating to bring down energy costs in the winter. The model advertised is 2,200 square feet on slightly less than an acre. It has three bedrooms, five bathrooms, full basement, a fireplace and an attached, 2-car garage.

65 Responses

Agreed, smoothie #25. Am I looking at the same pictures everyone else is??? I’m all for modern architecture over the all vinyl, he who has the most fake rooflines wins being built today. But these pictures are just hideous!

I don’t know what is going on with the blogs tonight. TU, get your act together, please. Anyway, I completely agree with smoothie #25. I don’t know if we are looking at different pictures but the one I see is nothing close to being modern. It’s like the Brady house before they became the Brady Bunch.

This house belong in California in the hills! I would not purchase nor purchase a home near it. Strange design. The interior is nice BUT STAGING should have been done. THAT furniture is awful and is NOT modern and DOES not fit the design of the house! This is why their are companies who satge homes, that is what makes them sell and match the home.600g is a bit steep, Loudonville is beautiful but the homes there are older mansions, I would die if I owned a home and they builtthis near an old beautiful mansion! If this home were alone away from other himes say in the catskills on a mounntain top then I think it would sell. But you put all this money into it, GET A COMAPNY TO STAGE IT PLEASE!!! The kitchen is beautiful BUT THAT COLOR would kill me in the am when getting up for coffee, that would certainly wake one up! I love to do interior design and woulld love to stagee this home it really does make all the difference. Modern sleek furniture is needed here!PS repaint that Kitchen since you ahve such big windows an earthy tone should have been used or even white to bring out the black.

Just as I predicted….most people in this area just don’t get it, and are terribly afraid of anything different. Heaven forbid a developer tries something a little bit different or (gasp!) builds anything but a McMansion next to an old (tired and dark) mansion.

FWIW, I’m a local carpenter, and I’ve worked on houses in the capital district that have a similar appearance, excepting the “west-coast-vegetation”, which were built in the 70’s. What still makes these older houses “modern” can not be said to make this proposed house any less modern… especially given the developers continuing mission to incorporate cutting edge and “green” building practices.

As far as the vegetation in the model is concerned, I believe it is in the right spirit, if not exactly geographically appropriate. The water conservation enthused minimal landscaping in the picture might actually become much more green (literally) given what vegetation our area can support. If water reclamation enthusiasm was used to mitigate some of the 5-bathroom’s requirements for toilet water, and the rest was used to water the lawn, via a gutter-to-cistern system, I’d be more impressed.

While foam insulation is fantastic, breathability of the house would be a concern for me, regarding moisture content, and the related impact on drywall, especially if traditional wood framing and drywall are planned. I’d rather have heating expense mitigated by correct awning angle and size, landscape options, and orientation, without fresh air being compromised by an air-tight abode.

The desire I would have, thinking about future generations of maintenance which this building will require, would be the fore-sight to build this house to accomodate transition to future technologies. One manner this might be accomplished is to rough in a second set of plumbing, similar to the PVC of the central-vac, to accomodate wiring pulls, if the electrical infrastructure should change in the future.

I think, overall, we can aim even higher than this model, because we will usually compromise, until technology becomes as free as the air we breath. Even so, this model would be an interesting compromise, and, as long as there is a bike rack in the garage and a charging station for electric cars, I vote to build houses as interesting to look at as this one is.

Love it (the design that shows the floor plan anyway). The walls of windows remind me of Camerons house in “Ferris Buellers Day Off”.

TBQH, I find most of the architecture in this area boring. Cookie cutter colonials, ranches and raised ranches dominate, and they are boring as all get out.

The problem that it really isn’t affordable. Come up with something that could be sold in the low $300s and I’d bet those seeking something other than the cookie cutter houses that this area offers would line up.

I am surprised that I am the only one so far that thinks it is inappropriate to have a computer generated advertisement for a house that could be built – as house of the week. I realize all house of the weeks are advertisements for the Realtor and seller that are lucky enough to be selected, but this seems to be pushing it too far.

It looks like a homeowner with no experience in building or designing, decided to use the leftover materials from his brother-in-law’s redo and came up with this. And since this is computer generated, why pick such awful colors. In warm, sunny climates, the cold feeling I get looking at this might be welcoming….not here.

The windows in the kitchen and bedroom are magnificent! Not crazy about that door in in the kitchen though. (Is it a telephone booth?) The flat roofs are obviously unusual for this region. I assume they must be reinforced with steel beams to bear the weight of the snow. Nice design overall and a welcome relief from the bland vinyl-sided colonials that cover the Capital District.

So much better than the hideous developments all over the place.. Let there be natural light! and an open floorplan.. I feel worse knowing people out there prefer prefab to this.. not my prefered “modern” design, but at least the idea is there

Its a nice design but the only two green things about this design is the price and the foliage. Its green to standard (LEED, energy star….)but its not sustainable. Green makes you feel good, like recycling a plastic bottle, sustainable means you use less, you don’t buy the bottle to begin with! If it was sustainable for starters you wouldn’t be in the burbs with a two car garage, the first thing you see about the design is a garage!!! The building should respond to the elements on a site (sun, wind, etc) to make it more sustainable not the view. You would want your design to be embracing daylight with large open windows (strategically placed southernly) with exterior shading for starters. I could go on but I’ll stop…I’m sure who has the green to pay for this type of home will feel “green” but they wouldn’t be the sustainable type.

Interesting, I love Mid-Century inspired homes. If I wanted any modern home I’d go for one of these, other than that it’s the old mansions for me that offer class and workmanship that can never again be replicated.

I agree with albany Landlord. I don’t know what direction this blog is going since Chris left. I can’t imagine commenting on a computer rendering of something that may never be, and much of the rest of the posts are just about stuff coming to the area like we can’t read the news ourselves. If you look back at the history of this blog, you will see most of the activity spiked when real homes were posted with real people’s stuff that got people to think about property and real estate. Those “real homes” were almost never tract homes or new home listings from developers.

I like modern but I don’t care for the main photo of the front. It looks like someone just squared off the multi-front tiered and multi rooflines of a standard “contemporary colonial.”

I have nothing against the basic suburban house, like the one featured from Glens Falls a few weeks ago. They are not McMansions, they are standard middle class family homes. I have nothing against modern although I do have concerns about the rooflines in the snow and honestly, most “modern” furniture doesn’t appeal to me as it’s usually a bit stark and devoid of the cozy feeling I prefer. I like an open floorplan but a family with 3 kids might prefer a separate play area on the main floor.

As far as the area, many of the homes on Old Nisky Rd are in fact mansions, not McMansions. I’m not sure how a bunch of 2200sqft homes (of any shape) will fit in. I like the wall of windows look, it’s nice to have natural light. (A friend has a home that’s got a greatroom that’s all open and overlooks a parklike yard, it’s gorgeous!) That said, it’a slot of work and if the view isn’t especially attractive (as in, on a smallish lot, you are looking out onto the neighbors pool or shed) you feel like you are in a fishbowl. Small lots are not conducive to walls of windows. Sweeping views of lates or mountains or meadows or gardens are lovely.

There are reasons why certain styles of homes have taken off in different places. In hot climates, single stories are great becaus the 2nd floor of a colonial is not where you want to be in August. The “Mediterranean” styles with stucco walls and tile floors are cool in warm climates but cold in the north. One of the nicest modern home I’ve been in is in Santa Barbara CA. I stayed there with friends a few years ago with views through the canyon and lemon groves and pretty flora all around. It was lovely, but had that home been in Albany, it would have felt like an igloo in January. I was there in November (when it’s grey here) and trees were blooming and the canyon was green. Homes like these are conducive to outdoor living, they draw your eye outside. Thus what else is out there becomes part of he decor. In our area, what’s out there, for about 5 mos of the year is pretty blah.

@ Linda: I’m inclined to agree with you regarding this blog. Chris’s posts were more than just rehashing the articles in the paper, and the homes were a healthy range of STANDING homes. I’m disappointed with the work done since Leigh took over – I feel like Chris had a genuine interest in “Places & Spaces” that showed in his posts, but for Leigh, it’s just a job requirement – unless it involves projects in Saratoga Springs, which is where her previous blog was focused.

For goodness sake Leigh, next time you show computer rendered homes could you please label it, “Possible Future Home of the Week”?

*rolls eyes*

How many times have people asked for floor plans? If you want floor plans, the most likely way you are going to get them is from a developer. I like how they are adding computer renderings of the homes as well, so you can get a better feel for a house that has yet to be built. Really, how different is it looking at a rendering online instead of a photo?

Quite frankly, I don’t see anything wrong with computer generated renderings. It’s a sneak peek before the house is built. It is really refreshing to see new home designs coming to the Capital District. It beats having to look at at another boring Amedore cookie-cutter-colonial.

Why does it matter if a pic is a rendering or real? In theory, all posted houses could be from far away places, houses we will never see in person and we could (and no doubt would) have opinions. After all we all love to watch “homebuyers” shows on TV and virtually “help” the buyers decide between 3 houses we will never see.